Archive for September, 2010

Ed Macfarlane of the English dancerock band Friendly Fires just sent us a photo of his blueSky Reverberator in the studio! They’ve been using blueSky all over their new record. We’re looking forward to hearing what they’ve crafted!

Tsuyoshi Kon, one of Japan’s best studio and live guitarists, just sent us a photo of him and his Brigadier! If you’re not familiar with Kon, you should definitely check him out. He’s appeared on well over 50 albums and can be found tearing it up on stages across the world.

On Brigadier:“Sounds like studio rack processors! All [Strymon] pedals sound so good. Very good signal to noise ratio, and I can plug in any position, instrument and line level.”

On OB.1:“Sounds just like a studio limiter. I use this a lot. I use the boost function like an EQ. Depending on the song, I’ll use all three boost functions, adjusting tone character.”

We’re very excited that Kon is loving our pedal lineup! Here’s a quick vid highlighting some of his skills:

Pete Thorn, guitarist for Melissa Etheridge, Chris Cornell and Don Henley, recently put together a very cool El Capistan dTape Echo video demo. He’s only had the pedal for a day or two and already managed to whip together this excellent demo. Check it out!

Hey everyone… You may know me as the Strymon marketing guy, but i’m also a guy that spends way too much time writing songs and making videos. Here’s a piece I put together the other day that starts out with an old Univox drum machine running into both blueSky and El Capistan. The knobs slowly get cranked up all the way to create a wash of drippy shimmery drum machine echos.

I decided to turn this drum machine effects noise fest into a more involved piece, so I added piano, guitar, drums, vocals and some synths. El Capistan is also used heavily on the Roland Juno-6 and Yamaha DX21 synth parts. Hope you dig it.

Recently, I ended up with a broken crybaby wah. I was already lucky enough to own a 70’s thomas organ crybaby which I love, so sacrificing this second newer crybaby for a project seemed like a fun idea. Since the crybaby chassis is extremely rugged and I like the action of the pedal, I set out to turn it into an expression pedal for my El Capistan. This article assumes that you have experience soldering and using basic tools like wire strippers, etc. Of course, always observe proper safety precautions and wear safety goggles while working on any type of electronics.

Here’s my wah on the workbench.

First, opening up this box couldn’t be easier. Just remove the 4 thumb screws from the back plate and remove the plate.

Then, unscrew the two jack nuts from the input and output jacks and also remove the single screw holding the PCB (printed circuit board) to the chassis. Unplug the cable connector, remove the PCB and set aside.

Connect your treadle pot to a standard 1/4″ TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) jack according to the schematic in tech corner #1. Desolder all wires from the pot and switch and set aside.

The “sleeve” of the jack is ground, so first connect that to the pin of the post closest to the footswitch. Then, connect a 1k resistor to the wiper (center pin) of the pot. Connect the resistor to the “tip” of the jack. Lastly, connect the pin of the pot closest to the jack to the “ring.” You’ve got an expression pedal!

Watch the youtube video for a walkthrough of the build process and an El Capistan demonstration with our completed diy project:

Happy shredding,
-terry

*All product names used in this article are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Strymon or Damage Control, LLC.